Hello Lisa.

Welcome back to another edition of THE PENCIL CASE! As always, each issue focuses on a theme to encourage a fresh look at garden design and graphics. Let me wish you a happy St. Patrick's Day as we celebrate the power of TEXTURE in your garden of green.

THE POWER OF TEXTURE.

St. Patrick’s day fills my head with lots of beautiful greens so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to share a secret weapon in planting design: TEXTURE.

We often put a lot of emphasis on brighter colors to make our garden pop, but if you combine a mix of textures, a green garden is just as powerful (if not more). 

In the simplest sense, great texture is combining a variety of different leaf sizes. Good texture can also be a collection of different leaf forms or even the density of a plant (tight branching vs open). 

But for our purposes today, let’s just focus on the LEAF SIZE. I feel this is the perfect place to begin when starting to learn texture. 

LEAF SIZE.

Leaf size can be described with three terms:

• COARSE (larger leaves)
• MEDIUM (medium leaves)
• FINE (small leaves)

These sizes are all relative. A leaf could be considered coarse or medium depending on what you place next to it. The goal in the end is to make sure you mix a variety of leaf sizes. If you only use fine leaves, your planting design might feel drab, but if you combine large and small leaves both shine.

This works when you mix the texture of plants with hardscape materials such a paving too. If you have a tiny-leafed plant spilling over a walkway, make sure the stones are a little bigger to create contrast (and vice versa). 

TEXTURE INSPIRATION.

Learn more about how to Make Your Garden Pop with Texture here.

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Think about creating texture in both planting design and hardscapes with ideas from this post on Texture in the Garden.

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Did you know that you should consider form, texture, then color when combining plants? If you'd like to learn more about form before tackling texture, take a peek at Drawing Tree Forms.

LET'S DO THIS!

When deciding on plants at my local nursery, I like to pull several pots together (right there at the store) before I make a purchase to confirm I have a variety of textures. Try this fun process to help make confident plant choices. 

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If you know someone that needs design inspiration, please feel free to share this newsletter. Anyone can subscribe right here. I also keep a VAULT of past issues in this secret location.

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Thanks for letting me visit your inbox! I look forward to seeing you in two weeks.

All my best,

Lisa 

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PAPER GARDEN WORKSHOP